1/32 Modern GT
Div' 2
I must say for myself, I was slightly annoyed by my inability to attend for the 1/32 Modern GT class races , held on the Friday evening, due to work commitments
as over the last few months, I had managed to get my Div' 2 Ferrari F40, really 'stonkering' around HSC and after making a slight adjustment to the body movement just recently, was Really looking forward to having a good race.
Having also done the Final assembly, (after James had put the Basic car together etc), of Dale's New Lambo' Div' 2 car, which was Already Very Quick, Prior to any 'Extra fettling',...so figured this New car would definitely be 'on the Money',..the Div' 2 class looked to be a really good competition.
After testing Dale's car on Friday afternoon,..it Was Good and quite Fast, but you start thinking of things you might do to make it even Better,..lol,..perhaps sadly Without the time to try them.
So,..I headed off to work, Hoping,..but also fairly confident that, knowing Dale, with a Nice, Quick car like that, it Could very well be a foregone conclusion as to the outcome,..and,..So it proved to be !!
Unfortunately, I do Not have at hand Any of the Race Sheets or further Details of the outcome etc, other than Dale Winning the Class, so atleast on a personal level, I was happy that whilst Not being able to attend, a car I had built had Won the event, which is Always a satisfying situation !!!,..
Div' 1
Other than knowing that Dale's Normally Excellent Mosler, was NOT Working very well,...(as I now have it in my posession for a rebuild!,..lol), I also do Not have Any further details at hand.
Hopefully I may be able to secure some from James, unless anyone else can supply the relevant details,..either via 'pm' or 'post',..
Mini Z
Well,..what can I realistically say about this particular race ??
There was as previously mentioned a pretty reasonable turn out for the events on Saturday, of which Mini Z was one.
Whilst once again, Not having Any details, as I did Not manage to get a copy of the Qualifying times and the Final race Details, were accidentally 'Lost', which Was a Shame, as the Racing was Very Good and was a very Clean and fast race.
After not necessarily Qualifying that 'brilliantly', Troy seemed to have 'gotten a handle' on his cars performance, with what was 'visually' a pretty spectacularly Fast and Extremely neat and Perfect handling car.
John, who has been a somewhat New 'convert' to "All things Plafit", coming from a relatively Dominant position from within the ranks of HSC's regular Scalextric racers, and has been persistent and seems to have been Learning quickly and has been slowly getting up to speed 'on track' as well, (his Driving ability Not really an issue, just lack of track time and prep experience with these cars), showed that he Has 'Advanced' his Knowledge/ability, by having a Great tussle, with JJ and others for a place on the Podium, let alone the actual Lead !!
It was a Great race to watch and whilst there were Some Rumblings about with regard to the Performance of Troy's Motor, (of which I wasn't that concerned really, as there Are some 'Delightfully Quick' Fox motors to be had !!,..(of which I can personally attest to, as will be seen later), so was in fact somewhat amazed at the final outcome after his Winning car was 'Scrutineered' after the race.
Upon 'inspection', not only was the 'markings' on the motor 'somewhat obscured', which is/was arguably irrelevant, it was the fact that somehow, from the original Tech' inspection to Race time, he had Re Set the Cars Overall Tyre/Wheel maximum Width, which were Now ALL Quite well outside of the Body's Overall Dimension !!,..I mean gee,..Really,.."What Were you Thinking ???",....
I Just Don't get it,..the car was Not a Particular 'Slug' and Troy Can and often Does drive Impeccably, to the point of domination, yet manages to do stupid $#*! like that,...
Anyway,..I must admit,..perhaps surprisingly, Troy did Not seem that 'Put Out' about his resultant Dis-Qualification and 'effectively', took it on the chin.
So,..that Dis-qualification of Troy's car, elevated the following three drivers onto and up one position on the Podium and we Now had JJ, taking a deserved eventual 1st Place, from an absolutely exstatic John in 2nd, with Dale now picking up 3rd, with all of them having had a great tussle throughout the race.
1/24th Historics
Well,..considering the apparent Performance of my car, this was a race I guess I Really SHOULD have Won !!,..sigh,...lol,...mind you I certainly Did come extremely CLOSE !!!,...
As with the previous reports, I unfortunately do Not have a copy of the overall Qualifying times, although I Can report that I managed to TQ, with a 5.4 something, but it was a point of discussion amongst a few of us as to realistically how Close All the times were, with the Slowest Laps at Worst being in the 5.8 to 5.9 range, which is Still relatively Quick !! It would have to be said both the assembled cars and drivers were All Capable of motoring consistently, competitively and cleany around the 5.5 to 5.8 range anyway, so it WAS definitely going to be a Really good race and uncannily the outcome was similar to a previous 'Historics' State Title Final with regard to the Closeness !!
Having had the previous Motor in this car since the previous Years' State Titles, (having dome All of the Local races at HSC since), I decided to 'throw a New motor at it, as it had 'Lost it's Edge' of late. I Knew the car was Already Quick, but it still Didn't 'feel' totally brilliant to Start with, as both the Tyres And Motor needed more running.
Having only recently been discussing how I liked starting on Blue or Green, because of the eventual Lane rotation, I managed to make a Stupid 'Unforced Error' Very early in the Bracket and did a personally disappointing lap Total, ending in 4th with Only 29 laps. This was then followed by an almost Equally disappointing performance on Purple, both only slightly redeemed by a satisfying total on Black. Being Now down in 5th and 4 laps down, I really was going to Have to 'Motor' if I was to even get onto the Podium, let alone Win, (which I was beginning to think was realistically almost out of the question).
Meanwhile, Dale, JJ and Gregg, had been having their own intense batte for 1st and by the ende of the 4th bracket, we had JJ on 120 laps, Gregg on 120 laps, a Very consistent Brad moving into 3rd, just slightly ahead of Dale, Both on 119 laps, Troy on 117, myself on 116 with John on 115 laps.
Having now had my turn on the outside lanes, I really had to 'get going' to try and make up the deficit to the leaders and managed to turn in 3 x 32 lap brackets, allowing me to get ahead of JJ by 1 lap, yet Still 2 x laps down on Gregg at the end of the 7th bracket.
In the last bracket, Gregg had an Off after I had managed to get 1 lap back on him and this allowed me to get an advantage on track that eventually put me on the same lap as Gregg with JJ chasing us hard until he had a disastrous Gear issue, which dropped him from a secure 3rd to an eventual 6th only managing to turn 25 laps in the final bracket.
It must have been far closer than I had imagined with Gregg, as I ended up having a slight 'bobble' virtually right at the end of the final bracket, which allowed Gregg to get past and after finally crossing the line both Gregg and I were on 243 laps !!!
Gregg drove typically, extremely well, with almost every bracket being a 31 and his car has Always been very good, so was eventually a quite well deserved victory and all in all a very enjoyable and satisfying race, which was at times a Lot closer than perhaps the final lap totals show.
1st Gregg 243 laps
2nd Stoo 243 laps
3rd Troy 241 laps
4th Dale 240 laps
5th Brad 236 laps
6th JJ 235 laps
7th John 229 laps
Group C (Lexan Bodies)
Once again I unfortunately do Not have any of the Qualifying or Race sheets at hand to offer any realistic report of the race, other than knowing that My 'Trusty' Lancia LC2 1700 chassis has reigned Supreme once again !! managing to both TQ' and take 1st place.
As the motor I had been using in this car, was even older than the previous years' State Titles and was one from my Historic car anyway, I had decided to fit a new motor, which I guess proved to be an absolute 'Pearler' and in fact seemed to get even quicker as the race progressed!!
Final outcome laps wise is unknown (until I get the details), but ended with the Podium places being;
1st Stoo
2nd Brad
3rd Gregg
All in all, another Very enjoyable evenings racing at HSC and competitively, a Very enjoyable and Worthy State Title event.
Thanks to all that entered and to James and the HSC staff for once again putting on a great race with typically nice trophies.
